He stood between 4-foot-11 and 5-foot-3; no one is quite sure. He was always sharply dressed, usually wore a fashionable fedora, exuded self-confidence and was filled with an abiding love for his family and friends.

He was born the year the first Roosevelt, Theodore, was elected to a second term as president.

Despite growing up in a cruel era of racism, Bennie Lee Young always lived beyond its bonds and above its hatred.

"He had rich and great stories," said 53-year-old Allen Stallworth, who was a distant cousin. "He was able to navigate the 1920s and '30s and keep his head up. He used to say no one can ever take from you something you've learned. You can be successful with knowledge.

"I'm going to miss him."

Bennie Lee Young died at 108 years old, and 70 people mourned his passing Thursday at a Cooley Funeral Home service appropriately titled "A Celebration of a Long Life."

The last few years of his life, Young was cared for by 81-year-old Ann Stallworth, a school board trustee with Stockton Unified from 1973 to 1990.

He likely was the oldest person in Stockton at the time of his death Saturday. Katie Logemann, a resident of Plymouth Square, is 105.

"He pushed every inch of his height," said Ann Stallworth, the prominent Stockton family's matriarch. "If you were his friend, he would give you his last dime."

Young was born in Texas in 1904 and raised by his grandparents. When he was 14, he ran into trouble. "He was excellent at shoeing horses," Ann Stallworth said. "He was hired by a man who didn't pay him. Bennie wanted to kill him. His grandparents said no, and told him to take a freight train out of town."

The teenager rode the rails and traveled the country for several years, winding up in California in 1931 and making his way to Stockton in the 1940s.

"He was a character," she said.

A common-law wife, Clairezell, died several years ago. Young never had children. But he was remembered Thursday by family members two and three generations younger.

"He's been a fixture forever. None of us know life without him," said Rachel Stallworth, 55, one of the cousins. "He was just outstanding and funny, and loving and supportive."

Elder Richard Stallworth, 6-foot-6 and 62 years old, officiated at the funeral.

"One hundred and eight," he said slowly and deliberately. "Can you fathom that? It doesn't make any sense to me. It's almost crazy. One hundred and eight.

"How does your heart beat that long?"

Young had spinoff nicknames. Depending on where you are in the family tree, he was "Little Bennie" or "Cousin Bennie."

Another cousin, Cynthia Gail Boyd of Stockton, said Young long ago figured out the secret to a long life: "He kept on saying, 'Good morning.' He had a lot of good mornings."

Five generations gathered to pay tribute. Young represented the family's sixth generation.

Family members also acknowledged Ann Stallworth.

"He was my great-great-uncle," said Shavonne Stallworth, 26. "But my grandmother cared for him to the end. My grandmother sacrificed a lot."

At the funeral's end, Richard Stallworth said the most important moment in Young's life happened after he turned 100.

"Bennie lived long enough to see the world transformed," he said. "He got to see all that, but it would have been nothing if he hadn't gotten to know Jesus, to attend church, to be baptized. There's not a lot to cry about today."